Life

Take on Nature: Jay walking in search of an elusive bird

Jays are fairly widespread in Ireland but notoriously hard to spot
Jays are fairly widespread in Ireland but notoriously hard to spot Jays are fairly widespread in Ireland but notoriously hard to spot

A FLASH of blue and white between the trees, a sharp screech and it is gone, but it is the highlight of the morning’s walk.

Jays are fairly widespread in Ireland, preferring broadleaf forests, particularly oak – a largish bird, the jay is a distant cousin of the crow.

But they are notoriously hard to spot and despite sitting for another half hour the one that had flashed past me was living up to that reputation.

No cuckoos yet, although I have heard them in this forest before and even a woodpecker in a nearby copse close to the shores of Strangford Lough.

Castle Ward is a National Trust property, just outside Strangford, a rambling estate of open meadows and woodlands, that sprawls around an impressive 18th century stately home on the shores of the lough.

This is an area that has long been inhabited by humans, there is a standing stone in the estate and at nearby Audleystown there is a collapsed burial cairn dated to the Megalithic era – between 5,000 and 1,500 BC.

More recent, relatively speaking, is Audleystown Castle, a 15th century tower, built by an Anglo-Norman family, with great views from its turrets over the lough and across to the Ards Peninsula.

Six trails wend their way around the grounds of Castle Ward, catering for walkers, cyclists and horse riders. In the last week in April the air has a bite to it and although sunny and warm when I start walking, the clouds soon darken over the lough.

Past sweet smelling clusters of whin, fields with bull calves testing out their strength on one another and curious lambs that have not learned the timidity of their mothers.

Walking along the boundary wall that encircles the estate I reach the woodland just as the rain begins to pour and the wind rises. The orchestra of birds is silenced as the shower peaks and then just as quickly passes, blue skies and fluffy white clouds replacing the rain-laden, bulging grey.

It is in the forest that the jay flits in front of me. On the path a dark twisting stool flecked with bone and a twist of hair at the end suggests that this is also the terrain of foxes.

And although I haven’t seen them here, I have been told by fellow walkers that this is also good territory to spot stoats.

But it is not just nature lovers who come here – in fact for many visitors from abroad, their sole purpose is to to see a more modern phenomenon.

“Wo ist Winterfell?… Où est Winterfell?... Dónde está Winterfell?... Hey buddy, dya know where Winterfell is?”

The old farmyard at Castle Ward was the backdrop for ‘Winterfell’ in season one of Game of Thrones and fans of the show come here in droves, sometimes on an organised tour but often under their own steam.

Yes, I say pointing to the sign with ‘Winterfell’ written on it.

I am about to shout out that if they might also want to try and spot a jay or hear a cuckoo in the woods, or visit a 4,000 year old burial site, but they’re gone already.